nowhere does he mention medicare, which, of course, is the monster driver of our debt. all he says on social security is that the president wants to sitdown and talk about it. assuming jack lew is confirmed, as this country's new treasury secretary, i would imagine he would have to get more realistic as to where the cuts need to come from. the only way to truly get a handle on the $16 trillion in debt this country faces and the $1 trillion plus in deficits that we face year after year, officials must tell the truth about the situation. jack lew has a clean slate. let's hope he uses it to get america out of this hole. before we go tonight, let's look at the day on wall street. it was a winner of a session today once again, this market wants to go higher and it did. up 80 points on the industrial average. the nasdaq up about 16 points, technology, one of the winning sectors and the s&p higher by better than 11 points. that will do it. hope you follow my on twitter and google plus. have a fantastic night.

i'll see you tomorrow. but first, stay with cnbc. here's "fast money," it begins right now. live from the nasdaq market site in new york city's times square, i'm melissa lee. banking on financials. wells fargo kicks off earnings season tomorrow. will the banks be big winners again in 2013? lumia lift? nokia surges on better than expected sales. should you be buying the hype? and debt threat. the queen of wall street gives her take on how the debt ceiling debate will effect your bond portfolio. first, our top story. stocks jumping to five-years highs. so, we ask, were you a buyer or seller today? b.k.? >> yeah, well, i came into the day long, i didn't make any sales in the market so i guess i would say i'm a buyer. going into tomorrow, though, where you can make some action on this, i'd certainly be buying puts at these levels. the vix is so cheap here. you have a free men douse runup.

we've removed all issues out there. now we have to worry about is the monetary imbalances. when things get that good, it scares b.k. a bit. >> it does feel like the market just wants to go higher and the china data overnight helped to juice this rise to five-year highs here. >> i think the scaring of b.k. is something we should all pay heed to. >> i agree. >> last night, we had great news out of china is which, at least if you believe, it's funny, because china data overall, when it's good, people are skeptical. when it's bad, people say, you know, china's going down the drain. china has been giving you extraordinary data, if you think about where they have come from and you combine that then with the ecb, that the second hatch of the year, in europe is going to be better. spain had an extraordinary two-year bond auction. their two-year in the lower end of the curve filled by 25 basis points. there's a lot of things to get excited about. when you look at what the market has done, we finally got through the 1465 level on the s&p. we've been trying for 21 days to bang through this level. to me, this really was clearance.

it wasn't emphatic, but a very important day and for a market that feels like it's coiled, not to eternity, but to a rally that a lot of us think is going to be relatively short before it needs to pull back and people are positioning that way. >> i think it's appropriate, dan, you are sitting in guy's seat, because you are often a bear here. >> that would be danny downer. >> danny downer. >> would be. >> look, again, the fact that b.k. is getting close to calling the top here, you know, listen, we're in a situation here where there's a lot of seasonal effects going on. we just started the year, we got off to a bang, the s&p is up close to 3.5%, five-year highs, we have the vix at, spot vix at five-year lows. here's the thing. at 13 1/2 in the vix, it's a little deceiving. if you go out and you look at march where the futures are trading, they're above 16 here, okay? so, it's not going to be clear sailing from this point on. and especially as we head -- >> it's almost funny to say, you go out to march and it's all the way up at 16, ooh. >> that's a 1% move out of a 1400 point index.

and to dan's point, i think the unusual surges that we've seen back and forth from people seeking protection in december to now them just shunning it like crazy coming into these earnings, we're right in that resistance area. we've shot up into this, yes, five-year high, absolutely right. but 1474 is where virtually every technician has drawn the top right there. if we don't break above it and stay above it for more than a day, we'll see if wells fargo's enough to do that tomorrow, then i think it is vulnerable. >> yeah, speaking of which, bank stocks rallying once again today. wells fargo kicking things off tomorrow. can this run continue? let's take our positions ahead on the banks ahead of the reports. what is your inclination, dan, in terms of where you go here? long, short? >> wells fargo really set the, you know, set the agenda last quarter, it had a very disappointing quarter on a bunch

of different metrics. the brokers are breaking out here to multi-month highs here. and citigroup massively outperforming. b.k. and i were talking about this for the last couple days. these stocks have massively outperformed. not wells fargo, but the banks and money centers for the last four months. they probably need to pause before they can go much higher. i know they're cheap but we need to see visibility for the balance of the year. >> just this year, financials are up more than 4%. goldman sachs, not just a month higher here, the highest level since august 2011. black rock, highest level since 2010. state street, highest since 2009. >> the whole idea of the yield curve steepening, that's really taken on in the first ten days of this year. and that's what this has traded on. i like the financials. if you believe in the repolice station trade, the financials are going to be the way to go. however, they are moved up so

much, so, i can't say, oh, you have to go all in the financials right here. i would, again, be either taking some profits, buying puts, just being careful buying at five-year highs. >> if you believe there is a rotation into risk and the bond market should be picking back, you should believe that financials will actually benefit from that steepening yield curve. >> people are forecasting that wells fargo is going to have a little bit of contraction and this is different than what we've seen at bank of america. their share of the origination volume is on some level weighing them down. but all the good news on the net char charge-offs and the things that have been anchors on their ability to at least grow their earnings profile seem to be things that have priced in. i am a believer that the bank earnings are going to be far more impressive for people to look at and to invest in. when we see this, especially when we see what's going on in europe and see the fact that the forestalling of the basil restrictions and allowing collateral, all kinds of collateral to be used now on the balance sheets, this is news that i don't think people have

priced in. this will allow these banks to take more risk. this will allow them to be more profitable. and i think this is something that people have to really size up again. >> i don't know if you noticed the charts on ubs, cs over the past couple days. >> crazy. >> since the rules were loosened up a little bit. they have been massive gainers in the session. do you think there's a better upside to the european banks at this point versus some of the u.s. banks? i think that the i. >> i think there's better valuation arguments. you are looking at ubs, barclays, higher than that. but well below their 2008 and 2009 levels. i think there's better valuations there. i think if you look at the fact that rotation into a number of these global institutions in europe hadn't happened yet. there's still room for that and i think this is a better place to play. >> if you look at the euro crisis banks, too, one of the hottest sectors today. the euro crisis banks up about 4% today. you take a look at the ones, whether you want barclays or

deutsche bank or ubs, when they were the poster child for all the bald stuff that was going on in spain and b.k. was right. i'm not saying he's wrong. that stock was upside down. you look at it now, it's up, what, 13% in the last month? and then you look at big banks like barclays, up 19% over the last quarter, up 33%, so, there's a big surge here, to answer your question that you posed about, are they going to outperform, they already have. >> i mean -- >> that's outperformance already. >> the ticker change, from std, just to -- >> san. >> made this a safer place to play. >> on so many levels. all right, shares of nokia exploding to the upside today after preannouncing better than expected fourth quarter sales. let's bring in jon fortt live in san jose with the breakdown on the story. jon, should we really get excited about nokia now? >> well, it's a sign they might

not have that burning feeling anymore that you talked about in that -- >> very nice. >> i was trying to make a transition there. >> very nice, jon. >> you see what i was doing? 6.6 million units of smart foeps overall in q-4. 4.4 of those lumias. a lot of the sales coming from europe. nokia selling phones in europe is kind of lime rim being able to sell them in canada. that's their home field. they should be able to do that. but a few good signs there. average selling price jumped from, to $245 from $205 in the quarter before. showing that they really are buying the higher end phones. and for stephen elop, he's been talking about this story, they are off the burning platform, really coming back. he told me that back in september. i was skeptical. but these numbers do back it up, especially because we were expecting a loss. they are showing a profit. a couple things to tease out of this, too. it shows what rim is missing by not having blackberry 10 ready for the holidayen is.

nokia had it out there sooner. they're wreeping some benefit. we'll have to see if they continue to reap that ben nep fit once rim is out there with new phones and the new operating system. the numbers that nokia did here with the lumias are a little under a tenth of what we expect to see from apple. apple, we expect to see grow a lot more strongly than nokia is growing. you have to keep that in mind. you have to see if they keep that growth rate going. and we have to see what elop has to say about north america. that's where nokia's brand is not going to do them any favors. >> all right, jon, thank you for that rundown. jon fortt from san hope say. and i think what was shocking to investors was that knnokia gave guidance in october, expect a loss of 10% and now they are saying break even or possibly profitable. he did, stephen elop, he talked about the first quarter and the headwinds they might face because of competition, because it's a seasonally weak quarter. so, maybe this is not all clear

here for knnokia. >> what jon mentioned, too, about, low hanging fruit for these guys and it's a strong quarter. microsoft was pushing them out there with the whole, their operating system, very important for them. almost sense they could have had some stuff, you know, some stuff boxed there, if i may, but at the end of the day, if you look at the dividend, this is really why i think people might actually want to jump into this stock. it's right now at a 5.5% dividend. if you look at where they are paying out in 2011, this is an 11% dividend yield. if they are continuing to make money, they can pay that. >> a lot of people look at that stock and say, oh, do you play the stock or the options because it's such a low priced stock. >> the option is very active. i know doc is ready to talk about it. i with us goias going to say, t 100% from the lows in the summer. people were worried about that swung to a loss, an earnings loss and what the burn rate was going to look like. this is a very stock specific story. i will not expect this thing to come back. i would put this in the camp of

molt r motorola. it will be dissolved. and microsoft was telling you that today. they were down 1% on a downgrade. they are their operating system partner here and they are note getting this windows 8 thing going. if the seams were better, they are stuffing channels, they are going shenanigans, they have lost this war and they're going to lose many more battles. >> let's talk american express. it is a stock that's moving right now as we speak in the afterhours session. announced job cuts there. mary thompson is monitoring a conference call. mary? >> a couple of comments here that are of interest. let's recap. the company earned $1.09 a share, excluding $895 million in charges it's taking in the third quarter. revenues in line of estimates. on the call, the company ceo says, just giving some color on the holiday spend. it said prior to this holiday season, it had the highest single dale of transactions back in december of 2011. well, this holiday season, it exceeded those levels, not once, but 12 times during the holiday season.

as far as single day authorization, suggesting strong spend by its clients, in fact, overall, client spending was up 8% in the fourth quarter. he did say that the environment remains challenging, but the company's overall core results remain strong. he went on to talk about this restructuring that's taking place, again, including those 5,400 jobs that melissa mentioned that are being eliminated. he said they are shifting a lot of their services for their clients online and that allows them to cut jobs. the 5,400 job cuts will take place over a year. again, the conference call continue, we'll be back with other highlights as they are -- as american express reveals them. melissa, back to you. >> thank you, mary thompson. it interesting the discrepancy between what american express is staying, what we've heard from retailers about the holiday season. sounds very strong. you look at mastercard and visa which continue to hit new highs and the retailers on the other side. >> when you look at the higher end retailers, american express

tends to be the higher end card. you look at a tiffany's and that kind of thing. they talked about having these record days yet their revenues were less than expected. they beat earnings because they are going to lay off 5,400 people. i'd be cup youls as the conference call goes on to find out why they had unbelievably great days but they couldn't bring the revenue in. >> right. and they talked about at least an uneven economic environment, so, it is a bit of a mixed signal. this is a stock that's trading at an aar. it's very overbought. i don't think you need to own this stock. >> there's no read through to some of the other credit card issuers out there in terms of, american express saying credit ipd kay torps are historically low. >> well, again, i agree with b.k. that this is one where, it's not exactly the same client as capital one. >> right. >> but it's a good possibility that capital one will also do

very well because of the extension of the bush level tax cuts and those being made permanent for all but the payroll tax that does impact some of the capital one folks a little more than it will american express folks. coming up next, the wiggest movers in today's session, plus, why china's stronger than expected economic data may be fooling investors. a look at hidden risks. and herbalife tripes to reassure shareholders, but the stock slides anyway. we get reaction from one of herbalife's investors right after this. ♪

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and we want to look at futures, of course, stocks closing at five-year highs. we want to see how they are fairing. futures, in fact, are rising.

let's get a trade update here. last month, tim was looking at baidu. here's what he had to say. do we have that sound? >> oh. >> baidu. let's go to a place where people have vilified all the chinese internet stocks. this is a value play. they don't have any competitors out there and this s.e.c. investigation into the chinese internet names is overdone. this is a great place on the chart. momentum is actually with you. >> good call. shares up 13% since then. >> rocking it. >> rocking strikes tonight. what do you say about the trade? >> i tell you what. they still have room to run. if you look at valuation perspective, we think this thing at around 18 times earnings really should be trading at a multiple in the mid 20s. it is growing at 30% a year. that, to me, is sustainable and may kick up as they get into their mobile space, which i think is underrated. the attack on their earnings was not warpt ranted. we own this physically and options on it, calls today.

we rolled out of the 105s into the 115s. i think you can still play in the name and actually around 125 is when you run into resistance. >> did you say delta? >> did i say delta? >> yeah -- >> drink now? what does that mean? water, of course, just -- >> china reporting better than expected exports, fueling reports for a robust global economic recovery. are there hidden risks out there? joining now is stephen gallagher, head of reser arch. great to have you with us. >> thank s for having me. >> in terms of hard landing, what does that mean in your view? >> hard landing, they're still growing, which is quite odd. they can grow 5% to 7%, 5% would be very weak for china. we looked at the possibility of growing 3%, 3.5% in china, which, in our mind, would be a hard landing, you know, we don't trust chinese statistics on their economy, so, you know,

this 1% latitude we give them. we did an analysis, sensitivity study, what if they hit 3%, it would be a collapse in their cap x. that's where they've grown the most over the recent years. that's where they're most vulnerable. they have huge debt loads. government may be pulling back on debt to some of these state-owned enterprises. we do have a major transition in chinese company, or chinese government taking place right now. it started in november and it will conclude in march and we don't know their full agenda or objectives, so, it's -- >> you actually did a analysis where you plugged that in, you saw what the impact would be around the world in terms of gdp, which we just showed our viewers, but also on commodities, various complexes, the oil, as we'll as metals here, so, why don't you walk us through the most shocking, interesting findings. >> well, the most shocking would be, you know, would be nearly a 2% pull-back in global gdp. possibly putting 1%, 2%, that's

the most sensitive or most immediate. obviously china has been a big buyer of commodities, base metals in their infrastructure projects. we'd wibe looking at 50% -- >> 50% drop? >> leveling out to 30% decline. what we're looking, exploring is the possibility of a major pull-back, because we tend to overshoot before we find our equilibrium. that's panic. that's when you spill over into the financial markets and into the financial institutions. and that could lead to the -- a much larger downturn and pull-back. >> since you brought up the financial markets, there's been talk about these wealth management products. how big of a threat d-- did you model that in your hard landing? >> sure. we couldn't get that specific into specific funds, but yes, we did look at the spillover and looked at the major banks

exposured into china, which is maybe only capturing a small part of the problem, because what we have in the u.s. is banks that are exposed to the miners, the mining equipment manufacturers that export to china, so, it would be a significant blow to companies that are just, banks that have exposure to companies that are based solely in the united states or in europe or whatever else, that have -- the companies themselves, the industrial companies have significant exposure to china. it's very difficult to capture all of that in a one quick sensitivity study. >> we're out of time, but let's put this in context. in your view, what are the odds of a hard landing as you are outlining? >> well, after giving all this sky is falling type warning -- >> you're going to tell you 0%. >> when is it? >> it's this year. going through a major transition with the government. they're trying to push the economy from a cap x led growth

model to a consumer led model. so, you got a lot of pieces moving all at the same time. it really is down to this year. now, having given you all those dire warnings, some of the recent data does look encouraging. we are getting signs of bottoming out, you know, we did have a pull-back through is second half of last year and seeing china's neighbors, korea, a little bit in japan, australia, beginning to show a little bit of a pickup in their growth rate. so, we -- >> so not likely? >> we're doing the exercise, you got to be prepared. it is one of the big global risks, without question. the potential black swan. but some of the latest news is encouraging. i think that's why the financial markets are doing better at the start of this year. >> stephen, thank you for stopping by. >> thank you. >> stephen gallagher. so, let's trade it here. tim, in your view, what are the olds of a china hard landing? >> this year? zero. hsbc has different numbers. power production is up. i totally agree with what he's

say i saying, if china sketchesteps am commodities in a big way. but there's not a major transition over than the fact of new faces are people that have changed chairs with the old guys, so, china has recovered, it's not 10%, it is not 2%. >> all right. still to come, herba-fight. bill ackman and dan loeb fight it out. and, we have answers coming up in the good, bad and ugly. more "fast money" coming up after this. at 1:45, the aflac duck was brought in

with multiple lacerations to the wing and a fractured beak. surgery was successful, but he will be in a cast until it is fully healed, possibly several months. so, if the duck isn't able to work, how will he pay for his living expenses? aflac. like his rent and car payments? aflac. what about gas and groceries? aflac. cell phone? aflac, but i doubt he'll be using his phone for quite a while cause like i said, he has a fractured beak. [ male announcer ] send the aflac duck a get-well card at getwellduck.com.

nothing. are you stealing our daughter's school supplies and taking them to work? no, i was just looking for my stapler and my... this thing. i save money by using fedex ground and buy my own supplies. that's a great idea. i'm going to go... we got clients in today. [ male announcer ] save on ground shipping at fedex office. olaf gets great rewards for his small business! pizza! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! helium delivery. put it on my spark card! [ pop! ] [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve great rewards! awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back

or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? sometimes it's tough to buy the losers and sell the winners, so, let's play a little hold 'em or fold 'em. first, ford up 17% from a year ago. so, tim, hold 'em or fold 'em. >> i like it. i like that div. i like next year's multiple of 7 1/2 times, it's not expensive. hold. >> hold. very good. >> thank you. >> next up, fedex hitting levels not seen -- see, that changed it. it used to be a buzzer -- >> sounded like i was wrong a couple days ago. >> fedex up 10% year on year. b.k., hold 'em or fold 'em? >> this one, you got to fold

here. 97 to 100 is massive, massive resistance. a lot has been priced into the stock. oh, there's the buzzer right there. very nice. >> you don't know if you're wrong. >> wrong answer, b.k. >> despite the buzzer, i still say fold this name. >> get a baby crying for that. sounds like you are almost whining a little bit. >> there we go. >> play with all their toys today. >> fun. >> more fun to come here. shares of herbalife falling again today despite attempts by executives to defend the company at an investor meeting. this as a hedge fund battle rages over their business model, pitting bill ackman against dan lobe. herbalife is a top five holding of the founder and chief investment which manages $130 million. he joins us right now. thank you for coming by. >> thanks for having me. >> you tweeted this position just days after ackman unveiled his short and what is notable about you is that you are typically a short seller, so you

understand where he might be coming from. so, why did you go long? >> well, we just think that his thesis is flawed. and i think that's why it was such a great opportunity. typically when short sellers come out with presentations to go down 40%, we usually agree with them. and even in those cases, you'll see 20% rally, due to short covering. in this case, i think there's serious shortcomings with his thesis. we're very tempted to go long and we made it a sizable position. >> what's interesting, too, is one of the points made by dan loeb, which i believe you agree with judges by the blog you wrote is that only 20% of herbalife sales are from the united states. if the ftc took action and they just eliminated the u.s. business, that's only 20% because it is such an international play. at the same time, don't you think ftc action in the u.s. would precipitate action in other countries? >> no, i mean, this is a mexican, malaysian, indonesian

company. these emerging market governments have much bigger problems on their hands. the mexican government is trying to regain lands from drag cartels. multilevel marketing is not high on its priority list. >> so, i guess the question then, you are calling it multilevel marketing. if there is an ftc stoppage that would mean it's a pyramid scheme. do you believe that? >> the problem with that is, it's really in a gray area. yeah, in a sense it may be, but is it el lyle? the problem with herbalife is that certain of its distributors are using deceptive programs to dupe, you know, low income individuals out of $10,000, $20,000, but a lot of the nutrition clubs are legitimate. we visited a club in queens that was run by an overweight hispanic man who lost 40 pounds through herbalife and 50 customers that would come in and it's almost like an alcoholics anonymous for overweight people. support groups to lose weight here in manhattan are called

personal trainers, but for lower income individuals, they are herbalife nutritious clubs. part of the business engages in mlm tech tacks that, you know, some of us find despicable. it's difficult for the regulators to shut down the entire company for that. >> how much of your investment was based on a blood spot? you know there's a guy, whoever it is, and we know who it is, ackman, who short 20 million shares of this stock. >> right. >> and now he's ripe to be squeezed. did that enter into your decision-making at all, because, as you say, you're a notable short seller. you know what that's like when somebody has your hands around your throat. that's what the street has right now on ackman. did that play -- >> definitely. we hone our strategy in the chinese verse merger fraud trade. one of the main firms that exposed that, that would take reports, share them with the public and make money. in those instances, you'd see 10%, 20% rallies off of the

trough. and so the fact you have this sharp decline and there were flaws with the thesis, you know, just poised to bounce back. and we felt, you know, after a couple days work, we came, you know, herbalife isn't the most complicated situation, in our opinion. we have enough conviction to go along. we thought you were going to see other guys in. you saw bronte and now third point. we are hearing about icahn. i wouldn't be surprised if there are tiger funds that are long herbalife. and, you know, at the end of the day, sort of ackman against the world. >> thank you. >> it's been a good trade so far, clearly. off of its two-year lows in december, after ackman unveiled the position. it's up 48%. maybe more. roughly that. at what point do you think about exiting the trade? even if you do believe herbalife is legitimate, the ceo didn't do any favors today by doing the interview on cnbc, during which the stock went lower. he didn't seem to have a grasp of the numbers when he was asked about numbers and that is always troubling to investors. >> i think the issue is that a

lot of people have made fast money here, you know, certainly makes sense. you are going to see profit takers, the stock might drop down to 35 bucks or so. but we think, you know, this is a business that's trading at nine times earnings and growing at 20% a year. very strong numbers. this is a business that's grown its revenue, profit, every year since 2001. >> so, what is this worth in your view? how long do you stay? >> 50 to 70 bucks sounds about right. we think conservatively. we don't know exactly when it's going to get there -- >> right. >> but we're still long. >> okay. sahm, thank you for coming by. mike, i know you've been following this saga very closely. what are you seeing in the options pits in terms of, after this interview and after this meeting today, how are people positioning? >> yeah, you know, it's interesting, and i spoke to a lot of other people who are trading the name, as well. the implied volatility in the options here is really very high. this valuation that we're talking about, we start getting up to 65 bucks, you're making a

lot of assumptions, so, you can assume for example that they use their entire stock repurchase facility and that can get eps up to five bucks plus put a market multiple on that. but at some point, thinkty growth story comes to an end. i don't see it possible that this thing hits $65 any time soon unless it's just a spike as a result of a short squeeze that john was alluding to, because there's too many big holders that i think would be very happy sellers up around the 50 buck level before all hell brock loose before this most recent thing. so, from my perspective, the best opportunity that somebody has right now, sell some premium. the thing is probably not going to hit the lows we saw in december. so, you can sell puts, sell calls, collect premium and certainly, you know, i would be happy to sell stock at 50 and there are a lot of other holders that would be, too. >> we're hitting a break here. best buy gets ready to release holiday numbers. and this high-def sony tv is considered one of the hottest

gadgets of the year. get the specs on that and other devices to keep track of. and later, the queen of wall street tells us whether immunity bond crisis is brewing and how it could effect your port follow. alexandra lebenthal joins us live after this break. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you turn an entrepreneur's dream... ♪ into a scooter that talks to the cloud? ♪ or turn 30-million artifacts... ♪

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welcome back to "fast money," i'm mary thompson with an update on the conference call with american express. the company, of course, also cutting 5,400 jobs and giving a number on how much it will save in expenses. it says this will allow it to keep operating expense growth under 3% in 2013 and '14. it also said the 5,400 jobs will be split. the cuts will be split between the u.s. and its overseas operations. you can see the stock is actually retreated in afterhours sessions after initially spiking on the news that its earnings, x items, would be three cents ahead of estimates. it said that the job cuts that are happening will impact primarily that are nonrevenue. when asked about how higher taxes may impact its business, it says traditionally it has seen spending by its customers linked far more closely to gdp

growth than any impact -- as opposed to being impacted by the tax rate. so, again, whether or not its business grows will depend more on whether the company grows. back to you, melissa. >> thank you, mary. best buy finder richard schultz has a lot riding on holiday sales results released tomorrow. the stock popping today and mike, you noticed unusual activity today. >> yeah, certainly a lot of options trading. one of the more notable strikes seeing a lot of activity where the jan 12 puts. and they were selling these things at about 55 cents. these are people willing to buy the stock, there, netted a premium, collect, they'll be long at $11.45. what they are suspecting, we're not going to get a whole lot out of the sales results. and that to me is probably not so good for schultzy. i think the real issue is, could he get financing? and if you don't see the stock really ripping off these sales numbers, you are kind of suspecting he won't get it. >> all right, and you can catch

more options action at 5:00 on friday. the annual consumer electronics show wrapping up in las vegas. gadgets include a phone charger you can store in your wallet and a fine-foot tv. what are some of the hottest items? weighing in is dan ackerman, the senior editor at c-net. good to see you. i'm sure you had a lot of fun -- >> i am having a lot of fun out here. definitely. my feet are tired. lots of places to walk around here. >> let's talk about the sony tv, the ole-tv. is this going to be something to get consumers into a best buy and buy a new tv? >> yeah, i think we're seeing a lot of new television technology. two big things that's going to affect the tvs that you buy next. one is oled, a really bright type of new screen that's really amazing. and the other is 4-k, a much higher resolution. like taking the pixels and squeezing them together. and what sony has is a prototype of a tv that has both of those,

4-k and oled. i'm not sure something exactly like this is going to come out next year. >> and some of the other gadgets that you are excited about are ones -- multifunctional. they are not necessarily just tablets, not just laptops. kind of both. so, let's start off with the asis. >> they are building devices that are a lap top and something else. this looks like about ultra book laptop, but if you turn it around, on the back of the lid, there's a second screen. and this in the back here is a touch screen. now, i could put a presentation in front of me and show it to you on the back. i'm looking at one thing and you are seeing something else or i can just fold it down and now i've got a little tablet here and that's an interesting combination of kind of a laptop and a tablet and sort of a presentation device. >> and the yoga is sort of the same idea?

>> it's another way to play with these different forms. this is one of the better windows 8 launch laptops and now at the show this week, lenovo has a version that's 11 inches, runs windows 8. it looks like a standard ultra book. this is actually a really nice stand alone laptop. i fold the screen back and it goes all the way like this and i can put it a little stand like this or i could set it up like a kiosk mode, or, again, i can fold it down and then i've got a tablet. you still have the key board on the back but it's deactivated. it's about -- it's a little bigger than an ipad. >> dan, we're going to leave it there. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> all right. >> crazy. >> dan, immediately, you were like, ugh, i don't want that. >> mr. side effects over there. >> it looked like -- >> no! i was ready for the boxing. >> maybe this is microsoft's problem. >> it is definitely their problem. you know, if you are going to

handicap the overunder for the existence of those on anyone's shelves, you can take the under in a year. i don't really believe that people want to touch the screen on their laptops. we have enough problems with, you know, smartphones and everything like that. i think touch is kind of a little over the skis here and ces is showing that. what about a cell phone battery that works more than two hours? we can work on that? we'd all appreciate that. >> yeah, i know i would. >> just saying. >> i love the resolution on that tv. >> i'm just safing. >> tv was great. marching band. coming up next, we're going to head to the twitter verse here to trade your bio-tech picks and oscar winners and losers, "fast money" style. but first, she is considered the queen of wall street. alexandra lebenthal talks about the debt ceiling debate and how it could affect your bond portfolio. that's straight ahead on "fast." [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ [ indistinct shouting ]

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tax deal. let's bring in the queen of wall street, alexandra lelebenthal. congratulations on that fortune magazine mention. >> thank you. i left my crown at home. >> bring it by next time. so, before tax chemical shun is preserved, but if there's a cap on deductions, it can be brought back? >> that's right. so that all of your income, all of your deductions would be factored in and if you fall below the 28% tax bracket, then your tax exempt income isn't going to count below that. that's actually on the table again. we thought we had breathed a sigh of relief. anything could happen. the national governors association has come out this week and said they are strongly going to fight it. i mean, they are the ones that really would feel the effect of it by the higher borrowing costs. >> right. what are you advising childrens clients at this point? >> you kind of have that dichotomy. on the one hand, you have that, and the other hand, you have the

reality that tax rates are going up. so, people are actually still buying. we have an example of california, which just raised its income tax rate and interesting enough, california announced they have a $851 million budget surplus. they have turned the tide. so california municipals are actually more valuable to investors in a higher tax bracket than they were. >> right. so, if you bought, let's just say i'm an investor out there, i'm going to buy a muni bond tomorrow. they decide to cap deductions later on. how does that impact what i hold right now? >> well, it would impact what you hold right now, because what happens is that the market needs to adjust to this new reality that municipals would be partial taxable. so, there are a lot of numbers being thrown about. some say it could be a 5% effect overall in terms of decline in value. i think we'll have to see what

happens when, in fact, that does happen and it could be that there's an overblown reaction, as there was in december. if i were an investor right now, looking to put new money into munis, i would probably buy something relatively short, because that's going to be less volatile, if interest rates go up, or if the value of municipals goes down. >> i've got a question, which i think is kind of a trade school question for us. you think that hiring of -- municipal hiring is going higher. we haven't seen this from four, five years, since there's been this hiring of state workers. >> right. >> so, the economy is better, rates are going higher, and yet if rates are going higher, my bond prices are going down. so, in general, how do you reconcile this? it's very bullish for the municipalities but it's not terribly good for owning bonds. >> you know, it's bullish for the municipalities and the backing of the bonds. i would not say that the level of economic activity that we're

at right now means that interest rates are all of a sudden

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welcome back to "fast." bio-tech stocks up 3% over the past week. seema mody has been tracking the space closely, has the latest from twitter. >> that's right. out of that jpmorgan health care conference, we've seen a handful of firms issue strong guidance for the year ahead and present positive drug data. that's help the sector trade up the last seven trading sessions.

it's best winning streak since last october. but not all the traders are convinced that this sector can go higher from here. bio strategy tweeting, it's time to sell bio-tech. we've been bullish since mid november. jon, time to book profits in this case? >> it may be. we talk about buy rumor, sell news. well, you've had the news. you had the hep-c drug out of -- >> gilliad. >> thank you. and so, i think it might not be such a bad idea to take profits. certainly a lot of people were doing that. huge turnover, 11 million shares versus a normal of 3 1/2. >> good. thank you. >> okay. for mobile devices to medical marijuana, we have you covered in the west coast wrap. jane wells is with us now. jane, you got your mike on this time? >> i do. and it sounds worse. here's a shocker. >> sound great. >> we're starting with oscar voters overwhelming liking a republican president. watch. >> things which are equal to the

same thing are equal to each other. >> ah, but not all movies are created equal and stephen spielberg's "lincoln" won a mostly civil war for nominations. 12 for the movie and all the actors. the film from dreamworks and fox scored 145 million. that's less than what came in second in terms of nomination, also from fox, "life of pi." third there, "silver linings playbook." and i dreamed a dream that my parent company would do well and "les mis" has eight nominations. "argo," my favorite film of the year, as well. watch the snubs. >> what was the last movie you produced? >> high and dry. >> who paid for that? what's your middle name? what's your middle name? >> leon. >> shoot him. he's an american spy. >> melissa, at aboben affleck w not nominated for acting or dreking. snub. >> what's your name? >> he's dead.

>> remember the scene in "boiler room?" what's what it reminded me of. >> my middle name is marie. fox got the most nominations. the movie with the most nomination nominations. and people say hollywood is so liberal. >> wow. let's quickly do the media stocks here, a lot of them, especially these have had massive runs. >> anything that's really a content producer and we talked about this all year, they are done well. lionsgate, michael burns, friend of the show, up 100% this year. still look good. >> got it. good to see you, jane. >> take care. >> got your first move tomorrow when we come right back. stay tuned. ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. make it worth watching.

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